Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez was ruing the decision to send defender Gary Caldwell from the pitch during the second half of the clash with Manchester City cost his side the match.

The 27-year old was shown a straight red card for an incident involving City striker Carlos Tevez when the score was 0-0 with the Argentine escaping any punishment before he unleashed with a hat-trick in 19 minutes to record a 3-0 win for City.

Martinez believes the sending off was the moment where his side lost the contest and was adamant that the decision was wrong.

The decision was a key moment in the game and until that moment we were coping really well with everything Man City had," Martinez said on ESPN.

"I felt we were growing into the game, we had a couple of opportunities and felt that the last half an hour was going to be crucial.

"That decision was a key moment. It really cost us and the game went away from us.

"It was a wholehearted challenge, he (Caldwell) gets the ball in the challenge. Carlos can see the challenge coming and he jumps with both feet. Gary is going with one leg," he added.

"To give a red for that, as a referee you need to be very, very sure. You can't guess with a decision like that and it is a turning point."